They all knew what elven mind magic could, and would, do to them. They’d suffered in the grasp of it before, and he couldn’t blame any of them for their hesitance.
Because he felt it too…that crawling fear at the base of his skull. A single glance from one of those creatures lurking within the castle would have them all seeing their worst nightmares, driving them to near madness.
Still, Jak lifted his chin. “I think the Phoenix was trying to warn me through the window that something isn’t right,” he admitted.
“Youthink?!” Alec interjected, staring at him beneath furrowed brows.
Hot rage shot through Jak. “This is our only godsdamn shot at getting Esmi out! If we wait, we lose her.” He took a step into Alec, and he matched it with a step back. “Now we didn’t come this far to give up when we see the end in sight, now did we?”
Jak’s stare roamed over the entirety of the crew, who began to nod in agreement. “We’re here to get our girl. Aye?”
“Aye!” they boomed in unison, a bit too loud for comfort.
Gods, these idiots. He suppressed rolling his eyes.
He didn’t dare voice what they were all thinking, though… That he might be leading them into a trap none of them would come out of.
But Esmyra was their captain, and she would come for them. So now, they’d come for her.
Jak turned toward the castle, jaw clenched and heart hammering. “On my mark, we storm the gates.”
They quietly crept to the edge of the forest, preparing to kill anyone who dared get in their way. Just as the crew prepared to burst from the tree line, shouts of terror split the night air.
They froze, exchanging confused looks.
“What the fuck was that?” Riven murmured.
Jak glanced around them, taking a quick head count. “Whatever it was, it wasn’t caused by us…”
And then a barrage of screams erupted.
They weren’t the poised, barked orders of the castle guards. These were guttural. The kind of screams that ripped from the throat as life abruptly came to an end.
“Shit. Get down!” Jak gasped out, his arms rushing out to his sides as he shoved down both Ren and Riven's heads, bringing them to the ground with him.
All the pirates crouched low, staring through the bushes as bodies began to fall from the high walls like stones, while those on the ground dropped to their knees with blood pooling around them. Elven guards tumbled in limp spirals, thudding into the ground with sickening cracks in an unseen attack.
One of the males rushed out only feet away from where they hid in the brush. Jak’s hand moved to the hilt of his sword, glaring at the guard beneath furrowed brows. But then, flashes of movement caught his attention, and a hiss rushed through the air.
Thunk.
A spear buried itself into a tree only inches from Alec’s head.
“What the fu?—”
Anotherwhooshfollowed by athunk.
A second spear went through the guard’s chest who stood barely ten feet from where they crouched, dropping him mid-breath.
“Kaelypso’s tits!” Jak gasped, his mouth falling open. “Who the fuck is doing this?!”
Figures surged out of the darkness then, cresting over the hill on the opposite side of the castle. There were too many to count. Their armor shimmered faintly in the moonlight, parts of it even resembling scales.
The warriors were foreign to him. In all his years, Jak had never seen anything like them. Some looked mortal, but the others…they were part man and part beast of the depths. Their skin tones ranged from the lightest pale to the richest brown, all with an iridescence. Their sleek bodies bore webbed and elongated fingers as gills trailed up their necks. Their armor didn’t even cover all their skin. Jak assumed that would leave them more vulnerable, but then he noticed fin-like ridges tracing the contours of their limbs. Even their ears appeared pointed and finned.
Maerinys. All fucking gods. They must’ve been here for Esmi too.
Their war cries rose in a haunting, layered harmony that sent chills through every man crouched beneath the trees. The crew watched, stunned, jaws slack as the wave of warriors crashed against the elven’s outer walls.
